A change of heart
by steph-meh-teph
Summary: It had been nearly three years sense the great war,between the fire nation and the rest of the world. The people were finally at peace and the world was balanced once more. For a few however the war had ended only physically, but in there hearts it raged on. zutara 3


It had been nearly three years sense the great war,between the fire nation and the rest of the world. The people were finally at peace and the world was balanced once more. For a few however the war had ended only physically, but in there hearts it raged on.

Fire Lord Zuko_

"no dont," zuko murmered in his sleep. His hands grasping the dry night air, his body began to tremble and pour sweat " NO!" he shouted his voice sounded sickly, his trembling shook the bed and fianlly mai awoke.

"zuko," she reached over and put her hand on her feiances shoulder. Another night of nightmares,she sighed to herself. This had not been the first night zuko had reacted this way to a nightmare,this was also one of his calmer nights. Once she had woken up to zuko tearing pillows with his teeth,"zuko!" she shook his shoulder with great force.

" run!" he jumped upright startling mai, his eyes wide staring into the darkness. He rest his forhead into his hands "I did it again,didn't I?" he sighed feeling the sweat that dripped into his hands.

"yeah" she sat up and scooted closer to zuko, her body almost touching his side. "it wasn't a bad reaction this time, just some talking in your sleep" she tryed to reasure him, putting her hand on his damp back.

"yeah, only mild talk about a hellish nightmare" he sighed bringing his knees in closer to his body so his elbows could have a place to rest. " I sound crazy talking about people that no longer exsist," his voice started to raise in volume " situations that have never happened!"

"zuko, talk to me about this, I can help you." she truely was worried for his sake, he hadn't slept a full nights rest in weeks and it was starting to scare her.

"no" he simply stated

"what? why not zuko?" the words came out more like hiss then a question, she retracted her hand from his back.

"i don't want to get into this mai" he roughly removed the cover from his legs and tossed his legs to the side off the bed. His feet touching the cold tiled floor he almost regreted not leaving slippers by his bed side.

"Then when zuko? when are you going to talk to me about this?" she glared at zukos figure as it slowly inched it's way to the door to their bed chamber." zuko, i'm serious! you never want to talk about whats on your mind or what your nightmares are!" her body moving closer to the edge of thier bed.

"mai," he stopped before turning the door knob " you wouldn't understand" he breathed he turned the knob and last words he heard from his beloveds mouth were,

"I lived that war too zuko!" she screamed as she started to sit on her knees as his figure began to fade into the hallway while the shadows of the night egulfed his 's words didn't effect his choice and the door finally closed. Frustrated she grabed a near by pillow and threw it as hard as she could at the door, and mai letting herself feel emotion, began to cry. why did she let him get to her like this? she thought, she was so tired of trying to get him to open up,like the way he had done for her. was it this frustrating? did he ever feel like this? Mai lay back down and closed her eyes, and hoped that the moon goddess would bless her with a good dream.

Zuko leaned against the opposite wall from the door he just left. "you wouldn't understand mai," he whispered " i dont want you to live or imagine what i see, i dont want you to see the monster that was." he put all the weight back on his feet and started walking down the darkened hall way."it's better if you never knew" he breathed out.

The happy couple_

The sun beamed through the paper blinds and warmed the tangled bodies of two loved the feeling of the sun warming his bare skin. He slowly opened his eyes to a peaceful suki who had fallen alseep in his arms. He saw the tiny dust dancing in the orange sunlight, some settled on the soft white blankets along side suki's body and his own, while others stayed in the spotlight and danced around for sokka's entertainment. Sokka smiled , for it was the small things like this momment that made him happier then batwolf in a cave." I love you" he whispered

"I love you too" suki whispered back, which had startled sokka because he jumped and his arm poked very hard into suki's temple. "hey," she grumbled " whats the big idea sokka first you say you love me then try to kill me?" she lifted her head softly so she could rub the injured temple. " gettin mixed signals here"

"sorry, i thought you were alseep" he gingerly put his hand on her face " and a mere poke of my elbow is not going to kill you" he chuckled lightly the sun was now at an uncomfortable heat on his skin he scooted closer to his lovers body and snuggled her deeper into his arms. a long but comfortaing silence between them. "but i do love you" his arms hugged tighter around her small frame.

"sokka?" she lifted her head up to look into his eyes

"yes?" he looked down at her face, gosh she's beautiful he thought to himself

"so, you know how were getting married right?" she started to smile up at him

"well i certainly hoped that I would know that, seeing how i was the one that asked you and then got slapped" he put a small frown on his face almost reliving the pain on the side of his face.

"hey, i was surprised okay? no one and i mean no one says that you might have accidently eaten your ring because i dont see it on any of the bread sticks anymore to their soon to be bride" she glared up at him

"okay fair enough" he shrugged " so you were saying about the wedding?" he put his forehead against hers

"oh yeah, so like i was saying, we should start planning when we're gonna have it and where" she smiled back being so close to his face he looked similar to a bug monster.

"oh no here we go," he sighed " why cant we just relax and figure it out later?" he whined

" no sokka i want this to be perfect! the whole shibang! a water tribe and keyoshi traditional wedding!" she shifted so her back was flat against the bedand her arms lifted while her hands sprung out like stars. sokka saw how excited she was about this and he wasn't going to take this moment away from her.

"alright," he sighed putting his palm to forehead "we can start today!" he whinced and his body was jerked into a death grip hug "suki, cant breath" he gasped

" oh thank you sokka! its been on my mind for a while now!" she started rambling about details for the wedding but he grip only tighten as she talked

"suki," he gasped " you wont be able to plan a wedding, if you have to plan a funeral first" he gasped again his arms trying to pry himself free from her grip

"sorry" she let the limp body of sokka's free and he flopped onto the bed breathing loudly " im just so excited" she smiled innocently hoping sokka would catch the smile. Sokka did look up and his head flopped down again.

"dont give me that look missy" he lifted his arm and pointed in her general direction but it was to late for sokka his face began to flush a deep red. he felt her body crawl over to his.

"oh?" she faked an innocent tone in her voice " why sokka? dont you love it when i smile at you?" she was no on top of his body arms on ethier side of his head. Sokka glared at suki , he knew he was trapped but he wasn't complaining. he slowly began to smile back at her.

" you know i more then just love that smile" he looked lovingly into her eyes . pleading with every pore in his body that she would kiss him. his hands roamed her body under her shirt and up arcoss her back.

"all you have to do is ask sokka" she winked shivering at his touch

"forget asking!" he laughed and grab suki's torso fliping her over onto the bed and slowly lowered his face to hers for that well deserved kiss.


End file.
